About
From 19 April to 1 July 2026, the historic city of Florence once again becomes a radiant centre of opera and symphonic art as the 88th Festival Maggio Musicale Fiorentino unfolds in magnificent style at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. One of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious music festivals, this season celebrates “opera alive” — a rich artistic journey between myth, emotion, and dramatic vision that brings together established masters and rising stars from across the international music world.
Opera Highlights
The festival opens on 19 April with a rare and bold work from contemporary repertoire: John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer, presented in a striking new production directed by Luca Guadagnino and conducted by Lawrence Renes. This powerful opera, based on a true historical event, sets the tone for an operatic season that embraces both dramatic depth and artistic daring.
From 12 May, Giuseppe Verdi’s passionate Un ballo in maschera returns with four performances under the baton of Emmanuel Tjeknavorian in his first operatic outing at the Maggio, featuring Antonio Poli as Riccardo and Chiara Isotton as Amelia.
Later in the festival, audiences will be transported to the world of Handel with Giulio Cesare, a Baroque masterpiece staged by the Monte-Carlo Opera and conducted by Gianluca Capuano, whose direction by Davide Livermore evokes the roaring 1920s with daring visual flair.
Symphonic & Concert Performances
The 2026 festival is equally remarkable for its symphonic offerings. Legendary maestro Zubin Mehta — celebrating his 90th birthday on 29 April — performs Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a highlight that promises both power and poignancy.
Other unmissable concerts include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (23 April), Dvořák’s From the New World (3 May), and Mahler’s Fifth Symphony under Myung-Whun Chung (16 May). Dmitry Sinkovski appears as conductor and violin soloist in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Shéhérazade (23 May), while Philippe Jordan joins with pianist Beatrice Rana for a programme of Beethoven and Bruckner (28 May).
On 6 June, one of today’s most celebrated voices, Asmik Grigorian, performs a recital of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, and on 16 June, tenors Francesco Meli and Luca Salsi delight in a concert of Verdi and Liszt with piano by Nelson Calzi.
The festival’s monumental symphonic centerpiece is a complete cycle of Beethoven’s nine symphonies led by newly appointed Music Director Daniele Gatti in four performances spanning 18 June to 1 July, culminating in the Symphony No. 9 with an exceptional vocal quartet and the Maggio chorus.
A Season of Inspiration
Across operas, symphonic concerts, and special recitals, the 88th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino offers a dramatic landscape of voices, orchestral brilliance, and creative staging. From rare contemporary works to Baroque splendour and the great Romantic symphonic tradition, the festival remains a celebration of artistic excellence — a must-attend for lovers of opera, orchestral music, and live performance in one of Italy’s most beautiful cultural capitals.
Experience a season where history, innovation, and musical passion converge — book tickets now for a captivating festival that lives at the heart of Florence’s artistic soul.
About the Festival Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual Italian arts festival in Florence, including a notable opera festival, under the auspices of the Opera di Firenze. The festival occurs between late April into June annually, typically with four operas. The festival has been held in Florence since 1933. It is the oldest European opera festival (according to he is even older than the festival in Salzburg). Above all, because of its history: a Season of symphonic concerts resulted in a Festival which,in turn, resulted in the founding of a music theatre company.
In 1928 Florence created an Orchestra, a seemingly natural consequence of the growing international dimension of a city that for centuries had been devoted, like few others, to art and culture. It was a courageously elitist decision for the time and resulted, in 1933, in the first Festival of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, which followed the European tradition of presenting theatre and music together. It is now the oldest festival in Europe after Salzburg and Bayreuth.
It is for its prestigious history through the last decades that still today the Maggio, with its top-notch offering of opera and concerts, continues to be synonymous with innovation, purpose, and an interdisciplinary vision of music and performance, concerts and exhibition, and opera and seminars, which complements and perfectly embodies the vibrant culture of the unique and stunning city of Florence - a city of art, monuments and museums, and a city enriched with an incomparable, magnificent past.
For decades and over the years the greatest names in music performance have appeared at the Maggio and have established long and productive relations with the city in an ever-increasing connection between the Festival itself and all the other activities that take place throughout the year in the historic theatres of Florence as well as - and mostly - in the new venue of the Teatro del Maggio one of the most interesting European Opera Houses created and designed to offer the most innovative technical equipment and a modern, efficient and stylish auditorium with excellent acoustics to its audience.
Major chapters in the history of the Orchestra, the Chorus and the Teatro del Maggio Fiorentino, on the last 50 years are the musical directions of Riccardo Muti (1969 – 1981), and Zubin Mehta (1985 - 2017), who is now the Honorary conductor for life and, from last May 2018 of Fabio Luisi. And today, as in the past, it’s not a question of a mere parade of famous persons; each one of them has helped the Maggio audience and, by extension, all music lovers to gain greater knowledge and understanding.
